In many places where public gather for the acquisition and exposure of products and services, such as fairs, conventions, information centers and so on, there is a need to use furniture, counters and showcases, in order to approach the public to the suppliers and present their products to them. In this regard, there is an important variety of such furniture, e.g. wooden-made, metallic, furnished with shelves and partitions; in general terms, though, they are bulky, difficult to handle and transport thereof results in hardships since they take up a lot of space.
One art-known solution to such problems has involved the creation of carton foldable furniture and counters. Nevertheless, their structural rigidity is poor, so that heavy things may not be placed on them; furthermore, it is impossible for one person to lean thereon. An example of a carton showcase is disclosed in European Patent No EP 0 575 275 A1. In addition, this type of carton-made furniture lacks of an outstanding aesthetical appearance, which is an important factor to achieve a commercial impact of the product or service being offered.
In this sense, there is other type of furniture very used in points of sale as the showcases and counters, of which, foldable versions have been designed which are very practical and compact, some examples thereof are disclosed in Mexican Patents 212,227; 225,710 as well as in International Application No. PCT/IB2005/002083. In addition, in Mexican Patent No. 233,812 of the same inventor as the instant application, it is disclosed a foldable showcase having shelves or tables, this showcase is essentially divided in two halves, of which, the second half is folded over the first half in order to achieve the folded position of the showcase, however. The showcase of Mexican Patent No. 233,812 lacks of transparent compartments as the showcases require.
Moreover, the furniture and counters made of cardboard as well as the showcase mentioned in the previous paragraph are far away to satisfy the functions of the showcases, in which, the products should be stored in transparent and restricted access compartments either for safe reasons or make the products more attractive. As it may be expected, the compartments of the showcases should be fabricated of materials such as glass, polycarbonate or transparent acrylic sheets.
In addition, in the showcases, it is preferred that the compartments allow to observe the products contained therein from many observation angles, moreover, the compartments should have an acceptable internal space in order to place many kind of products therein. Taking the above into consideration, it would be desirable to have a low weight foldable showcase, in which the compartments have an ample inner capacity, however the design thereof should be that allows the showcase to be folded in order to have a reduced space once it is stored.
In the International Patent Application No. PCT/IB2007/004211, it is disclosed a foldable showcase, in which the compartments of said showcase protrude backwards of the same and form a parallelepiped. In the showcase, the exhibition space is small in comparison with all the size of the showcase; in fact, this showcase requires a base for providing stability.
Therefore, it is required new exhibitors, wherein the exhibition space can be wide as possible in order to observe the objects from many angles, and, when the exhibitor is not occupied the same can be easily demounted and folded.